Chapter Fifteen — Part 4

“When these stones work together, they’ll protect you from any magical attack. We’re giving you our most powerful magic. My brother was sent to the Scandivat world, and he never returned. I miss him, I want you to find him.”

Lynette took a deep breath, a storm building on the horizon. “I have to go now — that storm is caused by my worry, and I have to curb its ferocity before it hits a city and levels it. Be careful.” She vanished with the boy, in a swirl of dust.

“Two earrings and a bell. So far I am getting plenty of gifts.” I toyed with the new jewelry.

“The Scandivats are the symptom, maybe we should be looking at their world.”

“And give up my life of crime? Never.” We laughed together, mother putting her hand around my waist.

Rain pelted our skin as we walked back to the ship, and thunder could be heard every so often in the distance.

“I remember when Roan sold you to Grandpa, and you were taken away. I was kind of jealous. Nobody would ever have given so much to save my life.”

“You’re worth more than anything to Kotian and me. We don’t have it, but if we did, you would be worth an infinite amount of gold.” Tiffany said.

“Oh. But if there were an infinite amount of gold, wouldn’t it become worthless.”

“That wasn’t my point.”

“I know it wasn’t. It just came to mind.” I put my arm around Tiffany’s shoulders, leaning close as we walked.

We entered the Persimmon as heroes, and were on board and drinking hot chocolate within minutes. Captain Reed stripped me and my mother of our armor, and took it to the service room to professionally clean it, and Kotian took a few minutes to dry my hair, which — fortunately for him — was cut shorter these days.

“So your mission was a success.”

“Yeah.” I said. “We dusted the trader’s plans. He fled the planet with his life, but no sense of honor. I slashed his clothes from his body and stole all of his slaves — sending every one of them home.”

Tiffany put her hair up in a towel, and draped a towel around her body. “We met Roan.” She said. Kotian paled noticeably. “He tried to take my daughter for his private collection — so we’ve decided to level his house and teach him a lesson.”

“He tried to do more than that mother, but you were sneakier than he thought. Even if you weren’t I would have clawed out his skull and used it for a cooking pot.”

“Let me help with this one.” Kotian stood and walked to the bridge leaving his half drunk chocolate on the table.

I sucked it down after finishing mine off, then rushed behind him, wiping chocolate from my lips. “What’s wrong?”

“The amount of gold my father paid for Tiffany made Roan even more of a tyrant.” Kotian said. “He owns all the local commerce, and has every local official in his pocket.”

“It sounds like you’ve been checking up on him.” Tiffany said.

“Yeah. I accessed my data banks. Roan is currently trying to gain enough money to buy a Lenitian war ship and expand his sales into the galaxy. With that kind of power, he could rule the Earth.”

The Persimmon took us to Roan’s temple.

Kotian smirked. “Wouldn’t it be better to freeze his assets than to level such a beautiful and sacred place?”

I smiled wickedly. “What do you have in mind?”

“You’ll see. You stay here this time.”

Kotian armored up and loaded a dart gun. He left the ship for a brief while. When he returned, he had with him a tied up concubine and five unconscious drug testers.

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